Rice Straw Shade Textile

I arrived at the rice straw shade textile concept after my decision to combine both the direct needs of community we visited in Guanacaste and the inherent properties of the rice straw, which lend itself to be a good shade material.

Below are images of the concept/presentation: [click for full image]

Appropriate Technology

We visited Slater's Mill last Thursday and were able to see some old, but still working machines. I particularly enjoyed the demonstration of the carding machine at the Mill.

The carding machine uses mechanical power to replace the manual removal of seeds by cotton workers. It loosens up the cotton fibers and straightens them on drum carders so that they can be more easily spun into yarn. The drum carder we looked at in Slater’s Mill was hand cranked by factory workers. The cotton was placed against the machine on one side and fed into it bit by bit, then cranked through the carder until it became straight. The carding machine is a great example of how to optimize efficiency in a system. The rice straw I hope to use as a woven textile might be able to be separated with a machine that straightens it so that it becomes easier twist into rope.

BBC -"large potential for new materials being developed... using what were once considered to be agricultural waste products."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13299292

The straw landscape and more

Basket displayed at the Smithsonian

Boruca people of Costa Rica

Japanese straw crafts and applications

Lots of weaving/basket-making examples

Road-side store in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Making clothing out of chicken feathers and rice straw

"Agro-textiles - a rising wave"

Pack Baskets

Rising above poverty with bamboo

How to make a net

Ock Pop Tok

"Sanwan turns rice straw into handicrafts"

"The braiding machine"

And finally...something that would have certainly been helpful in Costa Rica ;)

Twisting straw into rope

I had thought that rice straw couldn't be twisted, but I was using the wrong technique. In order to properly spin/twist the straw, you have to spin two separate bundles of rice straw so that the bundles themselves spin and they spin into each other.

This is much faster than braiding straw and allows it to then be twisted into even stronger ropes. I'm lucky to have family who have worked with straw in the past. I'm told that skilled farmers in rural Ningbo (China) can make 100ft-long ropes in an hour.

More Weaving Updates

We just had our mid-term review and got some insightful comments from guest critics. This is where things are now - click for full image of samples, explanations and charts.

Rice straw...

...can be braided into ridiculously long strands of rope by overlapping threads during the braiding process. I created the warp first, wrapping it on a cardboard loom. Next, I'll be making the weft and creating multiple samples with a continuous rope of rice straw. Below is a video of rice straw being woven on a loom in Korea. Below that are photos of my process.

I'm currently testing the properties of different types of weaving and the applications that come out of various textile patterns.

To be continued.